


The Chain

by DreamOfSerenity



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy - Fandom, Marvel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 07:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12008127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamOfSerenity/pseuds/DreamOfSerenity
Summary: The Guardians take a vacation on a planet of year-long nights during one of their celebrations, only to find that things are not as peaceful as they appear to be.





	1. Chapter 1

“What are we doing here, Quill?”

Peter's eyes flickered downward, a smile creeping at the corner of his jaw as he gave his crew member a quick glance and turned back to the cityscape. Before the Guardians was an absolutely enormous city that would have put Earth's Manhattan to shame. It lay cradled between the shore of a vast ocean, and on the opposite end an equally vast, barren desert. The sky was a dusky, clouded dark blue with a line of gold on the horizon of the ocean where a sliver of the sun was sinking into it. Despite how dark it was, there wasn't a single street lamp or neon sign present in the city. The skyscrapers remained black shadows with little to no light that reached for the sky like black spikes. Peter took in the nostalgia of it when he answered Rocket.

“I told you guys this trip was a surprise vacation. Care to take a guess where we are?”

“How could we? You blind folded us halfway here.” Gamora was not as on board with the idea of a vacation as much as the rest of her crew, but she kept her tone to be only mildly more annoyed with Peter than it usually was. Overall, a vacation with how busy they were these days was just not pragmatic, but it was useless arguing her point with how hyped their captain was for this trip.

“That was part of the surprise! Do you really not know what this place is?” Peter Quill turned back around to them with his arms out and that wide, sun-melting beam on his face. “We're on planet Dororan and this is the city of Zombabia. We're here for the Zombabian Sunset Festival!”

“Doesn't ring a bell.” Rocket shrugged from the ground, his tail twitching behind him impatiently. When Peter had suggested a vacation, he'd thrown in a few ideas and this place didn't look like much of any of them.

Peter was feeling his high come down with the overall confusion and disappointment radiating off his team and he put his arms to his sides with a sigh. “None of you know what the Sunset festival is? Really?”

“I am Groot.”

“Yeah, it's kind of a dumb name, but its... I mean, there's a reason.” He was being called out by the tree, of all people, and Peter was feeling cornered. He motioned to the cityscape again, the Guardians having landed their ship in the desert just outside of its limits and were standing at the base of it while they waited for their captain's explanation.

“Once a year this city throws the biggest party in the universe. See that sun?” Peter pointed to the ever-slowly fading star above the ocean. “This planet spins super slow. That thing has been setting for about 12 hours now. One half of this planet will remain in either night or day for a full year. When that sun goes down and its night this place is going to just explode! I came here once as a teenager and it was wild! I mean I nearly died, it was so wild! This city is absolutely insane!”

“That's not necessarily something you should say to convince us--”

“I am.” Drax cut Gamora off, his pale eyes scanning the darkened city. “I am convinced. We shall see what this city has in store for us. If it wishes to kill me it will lose.”

“Not exactly what I meant, but see? Drax gets it!” Peter grabbed onto what little praise he was being given and fed his confidence off of it. “Now who's ready to get annihilated?” He turned to his co-pilot, tilting his head and urging the raccoon with his best, winning smile. “Rocket... Come on, Rockster. My man. My main man.”

“Stop it with the Rockster, Quill, you had me at 'explode'.”

“You at least know I don't mean that literally, right?”

“I'm not going to get my hopes up, so yeah.” The raccoon reached up and patted the large tree alien at his side. “How 'bout it, Groot?”

“I am Groot.”

“Yeah, we'll get you something fruity with an umbrella in it.”

The pale woman standing at the back of their group with her hands clasped anxiously in front of her chest looked between the sun and city, but wasn't slow about making up her mind. Mantis took a couple of eager steps forward and smiled with a decisive nod, her large, dark eyes shining. “I am sure that this party will be so much fun. I would very much like to experience it. I trust our captain's judgment.”

“Thank you, Mantis. I appreciate the vote of confidence.” Peter had won nearly everyone to his side, so when he looked to Gamora, four other pairs of eyes followed to the green-skinned woman expectantly.

Gamora didn't have that much of a leg to stand on. She was outnumbered and outvoted. Even though she was against the idea, and still technically was, she couldn't help a small smile. “One night wouldn't hurt.”

“You heard Quill say that a single night here is a year, right?” Rocket scoffed from beside Gamora's feet.

“Trust me, you guys will not regret this.” Peter holstered his two favorite weapons to his belt, for emergencies, and turned to start heading for the city. All the while speaking of his shoulder at his friends. “Remember the rules. Buddy system if you need to wander off, communicators charged at all times, don't shoot anyone unless they shoot first.”

“Or if they really had it coming to them?” Rocket asked while he followed Peter up.

“That too.”

From the outside the city wasn't much to look at as it sat dull, dark, and colorless. Not even lights to apartments or office rooms of the skyscrapers were turned on for the sake of convenience, but once the Guardians stepped foot into the streets they could see that just about every person that passed by wore an array of multicolored lights from torches to glowing necklace beads. Food vendors and game stands provided their own light with a rainbow of paper lanterns, string lights, and candles. Even with how lively the city obviously was at this time, it was not up to the standards Starlord had presented to his friends yet. Peter offered to buy the first round of drinks, finding an outside bar that overlooked the ocean and its setting sun. This strip of the city was the most crowded where everyone could get a look at the last light of the year when it happened.

Peter handed the bottles of blue-colored liquor among his friends and let himself relax back against a dark light post while he waited. “Hold on to those until its fully down.”

“Mmf--” Drax had already started taking a swig from his bottle and immediately pulled it away, wiping a wrist across his mouth and pretending like it didn't happen.

Mantis smelled the rim of her open bottle, scrunching her nose up at the strong smell of alcohol, but did not turn it away. Instead she looked up at Peter inquisitively. “How much longer will the sun be, Captain?”

“Lets see, there should be a... Ah, yeah. Up there.” Peter scanned the tops of some of the higher buildings and found that the one, single light that any of them possessed was a giant, glowing clock that was quickly counting down. “See that timer? We have less than five minutes. We got here just in time.” He realized that it was more than a chore to keep his crew occupied and sitting still for more than three minutes, especially when he wasn't allowing them to drink yet, but he had confidence that once the timer ran out they'd be singing his praises within the hour. They stood by the outdoor bar, making idle chat and people watching while they waited on those few final moments to pass by. Rocket climbed onto Groot's shoulder and had the best view on the strip from there. Finally, the time came down to the last ten seconds and the entire city spoke up in the local language to chant with it.

Peter turned to his friends and held his drink out, counting down with them. “Eight...Seven... Six...Five...”

Mantis followed him up, catching on excitedly. “Four... Three... Two...”

“I am Groot!”

“ONE!”

The Guardians were temporarily both deafened and blinded at once. On one hand, the locals and tourists that came from all over to see the celebration all screamed in unison, streamers raining from the sky and toy, plastic horns being blown like at a sports event. On the other hand, every light in the city that had previously been turned off, from street lamps, to cars, to rooms, to business signs all flashed on at once and cascaded the now darkened world into brilliance. Once Peter's team had recovered, the human gestured to his friends to down their drinks and was first to show an example. Now thoroughly impressed by the display and the sky-rocketing amount of chaos that plagued the streets since the timer went off, the Guardians threw each other surprised grins and followed their captain in chugging the bottles he'd handed them.

Mantis only made it about a quarter through her drink before sputtering, her nostrils burning as some of it came out her nose and she quickly covered it and her mouth so she wouldn't seem rude. Drax finished his drink and immediately began to laugh at her expense, only to follow it up with a solid pat on her back to encourage her to try it again. Rocket scanned the scene from his Groot perch, catching the overall tone that would be set up for the night and decided that it was worth his time when some jackass purposely ran his motorbike into the ocean, surfacing a moment later and yelling at his friends with his fists pumped in the air.

That normally wouldn't have caught Rocket's eye, except that the guy and his friends were obviously the local police force.

“Alright then.” Rocket cocked a brow and finished off his bottle before deliberately smashing it against the ground. “WOO! Get me like ten of those!”

Music was being blasted from the rooftops and Peter shuffled along to it backwards, holding a hand out for Gamora and the green-skinned woman smiling with a shake of her head as she took it. She let him lead her along as he continued to dance into the crowd. “So this is your big party, Peter?”

“And its only just starting!” Peter not only urged Gamora along with him, but motioned to his crew to follow. “I'll show you where the best places are to hit! I can't promise you that this is a night you'll never forget, because I guarantee you we will not remember a thing in the morning!”

“How do we tell what morning is here?” Drax asked.

“I dunno, whenever it is we wake up after being blacked out on the street.” Peter laughed hysterically, taking another sip of his drink and at least being more decent than his fuzzy co-pilot by throwing it into the nearest trash bin.

Drax raised a fist in the air and saddled up beside Peter with a hand to his shoulder. “I like it!”

The streets were packed like sardines in a can with mostly the pale, lilac skin and feathered hair of the local Dororians, with a healthy mix of different civilians from all over the galaxy that had traveled the gap of space just to witness the event. The sky had grown almost completely dark now that the sun was gone, and the heavy blanket of clouds that rolled in helped speed up the night and the air grew chilly. People were throwing themselves threw windows, climbing street lamps, dancing in the middle of the street, and flinging their clothes off. White and similar neon colors were the thing to wear in whatever style the owner chose, just as long as the black lights that were set up along the main strip could illuminate them for the street raves that were being held.

The night went on as one would expect when you throw the Guardians of the Galaxy into the fray. Peter guided his friends from bar, to bar, to grill and bar, and clubs near the tail end of eating and drinking. Things were going as smoothly as they could, with Rocket only getting into one fight that nearly ended in the victim's shins being snapped in two until Peter and Groot broke them up.

“Rocket, come _ON!_ Can we visit one place without this happening?” Peter held his friend back by the collar of his blue jacket from where he stood on the bar. Groot hung back with the man the raccoon was trying to throttle.

“Can we visit one place without some asshole trying to grab my tail?!” Rocket snapped back, already severely intoxicated and swaying as he pointed at the man wrapped up in Groot's vines. The unfortunate guy looked about ready to piss himself “Let him go, Groot! I got this handled.”

“I am Groot.”

“I'm not going to shoot him, I'm just going to break his legs so he don't walk no more.”

“ _Rocket!_ ”

The second problem solved itself when Mantis was being harassed by a wasted local about stealing a kiss from her. “C'mon, sweet lips. Don't tell me those big, pretty eyes of yours can't see what we've got going between us.”

“I'm not so sure I know what you mean.” Mantis replied apologetically. “What is going between us?”

By this time Gamora and Drax had started listening in from down the bar, both keeping sharp eyes on the two. Gamora pushed her stool back to head in, only to be stopped by Drax, who held a finger up at her to patiently wait.

“Well, come here and find out.” The Dororian leaned in to kiss Mantis, who was uncomfortable with most people being in her personal bubble, let alone a complete stranger. Not fully understanding what he intended to do, still, she reached her hand out on reflex and touched his forehead, demanding that he take a nap on the spot.

“Sleep!”

With not even a moment's delay, the local's eyes rolled into his head and he dropped to the club floor, passed clean out and already snoring. Drax laughed and clapped from where he sat at the bar and whoever else had been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of what happened cheered loudly. Gamora tilted her head with a shrug, relaxing as she took her seat again and let Mantis soak in her praise, however confused she was about it.

Later down the line, Peter and Gamora involved themselves in what would eventually become a very heated game of Poker with some of the other festival-goers that ended in Gamora leaving with a few hundred units more than she did entering the game. Even further still, Peter had convinced her to enter a dance contest with him on the street, one that he still managed to win while being completely inebriated. Or maybe he won because he was inebriated. Hard to tell at this point.

“Your moves suck, Quill!” Rocket called from where he was standing on Groot's shoulders on the side of the street where the contest was held, Drax and Mantis on either side of the tree and using him as a leaning post of support. Mantis had managed to find some of the sweeter drinks that didn't taste too much like liquor, thanks to Groot's help, and was swaying with a hand to her mouth and giggling.

Peter shuffled over with his prize in hand and a much more sober Gamora mimicking him for the fun of it. “Ah yeah, Ranger Rick? Check it! If my moves suck, explain the 500 units I just won, huh?”

“I didn't think this would be the type of party to give out pity prizes, so good for you.”

Gamora had a taunting smile across her cheeks, the woman resting an arm on Peter's shoulder as she looked up at the raccoon. “Don't listen to him, Peter. He's mad he can't dance to save his skin.”

Rocket was at the point of the night where he no longer had any drive and he only shrugged Gamora off. “I'm comfortable with that. I don't need to wiggle around as if I were a Florion cave worm like you two idiots. Quill can use that extra cash to rent us a hotel room. I ain't walking back to the Milano.”

“I am Groot.”

“It doesn't really matter if I ride your shoulders or not. You don't want to walk back either.”

It was the king of parties and queen of nights, however long it lasted. Eventually, all reigns must come to an end, and the city slowly but surely quieted down for its long days of forever night just as their moon could be seen rising in the desert.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Silence befell the city of Zombabia. In the highest room of one of the ritzier hotels, the suite had been spoken for in the name of the Guardians that decided forking over a little extra cash for the occasion to get a nice, big room to share between the six of them wasn't such a bad idea. At least for those that had a little too much the night before. Each Guardian occupied a piece of the large room in their own way with Peter passed out on the couch, Drax across the marble floor, Groot in the bathroom where his vines were climbing the walls and spilling into the main room, and Mantis only halfway hanging off the king-sized bed. One by one they began to stir, Peter being the first to sit up groggily with a hand to his aching head. Blinking a few times to clear his foggy vision, he looked around the room and found Gamora sitting nicely at the table, eating a muffin-like pastry she grabbed from the complementary kitchenette and sipping at a mug of coffee. Starlord squinted at her long and hard, gathering his scrambled thoughts before speaking. When he did manage to find a voice it was hoarse and coated with sickness.

“You tricked me.”

“How did I trick you?” Gamora was obviously amused and smiled, but kept eating her muffin and looking like a queen among queens despite their rough night.

“You didn't party hard enough.”

“I partied the right amount so that I had fun but also could keep an eye on the rest of you.” She finished off her breakfast and threw the wrapper away in the bin beside the table. “Besides, that's how I got the upper hand in the poker game last night.”

“Sneaky.” Peter rubbed at his hair, which was sticking up in all directions of crazy and he scanned the room to account for each of their team members. Make sure everyone was there and healthy...Healthy- _ish_.

Gamora at the table, Drax on the floor, Groot's vines coming out of the bathroom, Mantis in bed, and... “Where's Rocket?”

Gamora had her coffee mug to her lips, so when she replied she simply pointed a finger to the ceiling for Peter to follow. When he looked up he could see a fluffy, striped tail hanging out the side of the suite's bowl-shaped, porcelain chandelier. He'd even dragged a pillow up there with him. One clawed-hand hung out the rim of the chandelier with a half-drunken bottle still miraculously being gripped in it. “Right. Okay.”

Peter put his face in his hands, hunched over and trying to rub the migraine away that he was feeling. Mantis was the next one up, the bug-like woman making a surprised gasp as she fell the rest of the way off the bed and wearily sat up on the marble. One hand was to her mouth and the other to her stomach, looking between Gamora and Peter pleadingly. “I am not well.”

“Go throw up, honey. You'll feel better.” Gamora pointed to the bathroom. Peter was only just now noticing that there was water creeping along the floor.

“Throw up? Is it not healthy to--” Mantis stopped mid-sentence, clasping both hands to her mouth and shakily getting up to dash for the bathroom. Peter cringed at the noises that followed, but thankfully Groot had woken up by now and reached a vine out to help hold her hair back from where he'd been bummed out in the large bathtub. It was full to the brim with cold water and it splashed over the side whenever he moved.

Drax was the next one to get up, but the man only seemed mildly put off by the aftereffects from their night out and made his way to the kitchenette to get a towel damp. After dabbing his face in the cold water to help wake himself up, he noted Gamora's coffee and nodded at her. “Have you already gone down to the buffet?”

“Made this here. I thought I'd wait up on you guys.” Finishing off her mug Gamora went to put it in the sink and wash it off so that the room-keepers would have a little less to take care of, outside of their room being obviously trashed. There were cans and bottles everywhere, sheets pulled off the bed, cushions on the floor, a few of the Dororian equivalent to pizza boxes, Groot had flooded the bathroom, one of the windows had a perfect hole seared through it, and a single board game of “Monopoly” was spread out on the table. No one actually got around to playing it because Peter and Rocket wouldn't stop fighting between themselves over who got to be the car piece.

Because of his short stature, Rocket was the lightweight of the group and took the beating the hardest at the end of the night, so Peter had to get up and actually check to make sure he hadn't died of alcohol poisoning. Grabbing a broom, one that had no business being in the middle of the floor, Peter walked up under the chandelier and knocked the bottle from Rocket's hand, just managing to catch it before it shattered on the floor. Next he prodded the arm itself. “Hey... Hey, Rocket!”

“Sssshhffffmmurg...” Was the response he got and the raccoon rolled over, the chandelier swaying and threatening to fall.

“Rise and shine, jackass. You realize you're hanging from the ceiling, right?”

“Mildly aware.” Rocket groaned, lifting his head enough to rest his cheek against the rim of his improvised bed and looked down at Peter. “S'up?”

“You. Now get down.”

“Can't. Used Groot to get up here.”

“You're a cybernetically enhanced, twenty-three-time prison escapee. You're telling me you can't jump?”

“Can you?”

Peter thought about it a moment. He willed his brain to make his feet hop even an inch off the floor, but his legs weren't listening. He tilted his head at the raccoon with a raised brow. “Fair enough. Groot? Can you come help the furry baby when you got a moment?”

“Fuck you too, Quill.” Rocket slipped back into the bowl to get a couple more minutes of sleep until Groot could retrieve him.

Once things were situated between the Guardians it was time to attempt social interaction by heading down to the hotel's buffet on the ground floor, which came free with the suite and they each had a pass to show for it. The room was picked up to an extent, though there wasn't a lot they could do about the hole in the window and flooding. The crew washed and cleaned themselves up enough to be presentable in public, though Starlord insisted he wear the room's fuzzy pink slippers and robe down to the lobby and couldn't be convinced out of it. The majority of them were about as sharp as pillows, save for Gamora, and were quiet on the elevator, a ride that Groot had to sit down to occupy. It wasn't until they'd passed the lobby and entered the buffet that anything seemed particularly off about the place.

The Guardians stood in the middle of the restaurant, the room decked out with Sunset Festival themed decorations with silk banners of blue and purple hanging from the ceiling along with a painted full moon mural on the back wall. There were star speckled, navy blue sheets covering the tables with perfectly round lamps at each center, glowing florescent blue potted plants along the walls, and strobe lights flashing inside of a large water fountain in the middle of the grandiose room. The only thing missing was the guests.

“...Weird.” Starlord turned a full three-sixty to see where everyone had gone. “Are we late...early? It's hard to tell.”

“It shouldn't matter. Its twenty-four hour entry for the festival for the next few days.” Gamora had her hand to the sword-hilt on her belt, tapping it anxiously and listening for any sign of life. For a hotel in the middle of a city-wide celebration, everything was eerily quiet.

“There's food out.” Drax observed by picking up a drumstick from one of the trays along the buffet line of some kind of cooked bird and started eating it. “It's hot too.”

Peter was about to suggest that there was an event they could have been missing when he glanced at the window peaking into the back kitchen of the restaurant and saw smoke seeping out of it.

“Oh, shit! Drax!” Peter waved an arm at him since he was closest, Drax turning and at the sight of the smoke jumped over the counter and ran into the kitchen. Peter went after him with his pink bathrobe flying behind him, the two finding a pan on one of the stoves with food that had caught fire and not a single person to watch over it. Ignoring how concerning that was for the moment, Drax smothered the fire with a large pan lid and Peter ran around the kitchen turning similar devices off that had just been left to run with the food burning. Had they been there five minutes too late the whole restaurant would have caught fire. Coughing, the two stumbled out of the kitchen after the food had been taken care of and left the door open so it would air out.

The others waited outside the kitchen anxiously, but keeping an eye on them through the open window, and when they piled back into the dining room Peter gasped a few times before pointing back to the smoking hell hole. “Th—there's no one back there! Who just leaves food on a running stove like that?!”

“You do.” Drax coughed and tried to regain his composure.

“Where did everyone go?” Mantis traveled her way through the tables, stopping at one that had obviously been occupied and picked up a colorful stuffed animal of some species. A child's toy with a fresh stain on it from a cup of knocked over fruit juice.

“This is about seven-different levels of creepy.” Rocket had been hanging off Groot's shoulders and stood up to get a sniff at things, but the smoke was clouding any scent he may have picked up from someone close by. “Did we even see any staff coming down here?”

“No.” Gamora replied simply and began to walk out of the dining room and back into the main lobby. Still no soul in sight, not even at the front desks. There were personal belongings, such as luggage and and handbags, unattended on the lounge seats and floors, as well as a running fireplace. Peter was quick to run over to that first and turn it off just in case. When he'd finished he spun around with his arms out and then tugged at his own hair in distress. “What. The. _HELL?!_ ”

“Oh, yeah, this is absolutely terrible.” Rocket mumbled as he hopped up onto one of the couches and started digging through a very nice leather purse. His captain corrected it before he could pull anything out.

“Rocket, put that down!”

“What? Its their fault they just left it sitting out like this. That's negligence.” Rocket shrugged, looking genuinely surprised that Quill saw this as misbehaving and waved a wallet at the human. “Come on, there's like six-hundred cash in here.”

“I found a necklace!” Mantis said excitedly as she reached past the raccoon and pulled out a piece of expensive looking jewelry from the same bag.

“Mantis, not you too. What are you doing?”

“Rocket informed me of the 'finders keepers' rule. Is this not how it works?” She looked up at Peter with confused eyes, meanwhile Rocket had put a paw to his mouth and his shoulders quivered as he tried to repress a laugh.

“No, that's not a thing for us. Put it all back. God...” Peter rubbed at his neck aggressively and paced around the room. “It shouldn't even be an issue. What's happening right now is an issue. We could be under attack right now.” He stopped his pacing, took in a breath, and calmed himself down. “Okay. Let's take a quick peek outside. For all we know the hotel evacuated because of a gas leak and we slept through it. Just... stay wary. Stay cautious. Don't make any sudden movements when we walk through those doors.”

Peter approached the large, stainless steel door to the street and pushed it open a crack to get a look outside. Rocket hopped down from Groot's shoulder onto Quill's back and poked his nose out alongside him. It was still night, as expected of a city that would spend the next year in the dark, and all of the city lights were still on and illuminating the streets. Cars had been jammed together in an uncoordinated, dangerous line and some looked to be crashed into each other. However, it was a relief when the two saw that there were indeed people outside, and plenty of them. There didn't seem to be any loud noises or general panic, so Peter turned away from the door and nodded at the other Guardians. “Okay, everything seems fine. Just... casually walk out like nothing's happened and we'll politely ask someone why this hotel was evacuated. If officials ask why we're still in here we just say that we were blacked out and didn't hear the alarm or whatever. I'm sure we're not the only ones this happened to.”

“No, I'm pretty sure this crap only happens to us.” Rocket remarked as he hopped down from Peter's back.

Their leader opened the doors up and strolled out of the hotel towards the street, the Guardians still remaining cautious and looking every which way to determine what had gone wrong. Peter found a uniformed Dororian immediately on the sidewalk and approached him. “Excuse me, officer? We just came out of the Sal Lal hotel from one of the suites. Can you tell us what's happening in there?”

The Dororian officer, one that Rocket vaguely remembered as the one that rolled his vehicle in the ocean the night before, slowly turned to Peter and stared at the much taller man. Silently. Starlord waited for any kind of response from him, and even waved a hand in front of his eyes to garner a reflex reaction. It was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. “Um... Hello? Officer? You still kicking the night juice or what?”

The officer reached a hand out, his slitted bright violet eyes fixated on Peter as he grabbed the arm of Peter's bathrobe. Startled, he jolted back and tried to shrug his arm away, but the grip was iron tight and the Dororian wasn't letting go. “Dude, what's your problem?”

Other civilians were turning to stare at them just as deadpan as the officer had been. Without uttering a single word, they started to move in on the Guardians with their hands reaching. The entire street was catching onto them and followed the example of the others. Peter, thoroughly freaked out by now, slipped out of his robe so that the officer let go and was now standing outside in only a black concert-shirt and some boxer-shorts. Gamora, Drax, and Rocket stood full defense mode and reaching for their weapons, since Peter was the only one that neglected to bring his downstairs. As creepy as all of this was, the people moving in on them were still innocents and Peter motioned his friends to retreat. “Back inside! Back inside!”

He didn't have to tell them a third time, the Guardians slipping back into the hotel lobby with hearts racing and blood pumping from the unexpected scare. Hands reached passed the door and the people from the streets started to pile into the room, moving faster than they had before and urging the Guardians into a full run back where they'd came. Rocket stopped and hung back, resting his gun to his shoulder and taking aim, charging up to blast the oncoming crowd, but was quickly picked up by the back of his jacket collar by Groot and carried away. “I am Groot!”

“Innocent?! They're trying to attack us!”

“I am _Groot!_ ”

“Its a judgment call, and I'm judging that this is fucked up!”

The stairs were out of the question, but if they could get the elevator they could possibly lose them. Groot was last in, still carrying Rocket and squeezed in just as the doors were closing. The citizens from outside sprinted down the hall for them, Peter impatiently hitting the 'Close Door' button and sighing in relief when it shut just in time for the officer to slam straight into it with a thud. The elevator ride back up to their room was heavily contrasted to the one they'd taken earlier going down to the lobby. While then they had been quiet and half-asleep, this time around they were wide awake and yelling amongst themselves in a confused panic. Once they'd reached their floor, the Guardians stumbled out and ran for their room, piling in and locking it with no other people to be seen. Drax and Groot immediately made themselves busy by pushing various pieces of furniture in front of the door to barricade themselves in.

Gamora was just about as rattled as Peter was and the two were now frantically yelling at each other on the other side of the room. “What was THAT?!”

“I don't KNOW!” Peter had gone back into the hysterics, running to the large windows of their suite room and look down at the crowded streets bellow. Just bellow the building, people were still pouring into the Hotel after they'd left the lobby, but now that he'd gotten a better look any other part of the street they just stood there motionless. “Is...is it Zombies?”

“As in Zombabians?” Rocket asked.

“No, no, Zombies!” Peter whirled back around, his hands trying to animate his explanation. “They're undead monster people that rise from graves and try to eat your brains.”

Rocket's nose curled upward in disgust.“Crag, Quill, you got those on Earth? That's gross.”

“Not really, its fiction. They're only in movies and stuff.” Peter scratched the back of his neck, still jittery from their run. “But those people down there had all the same symptoms! Dead stare, moving in hoards, trying to grab the living--”

“They did not look dead.” Drax interrupted.

“We don't know that! What if everyone died over night from... Something? I dunno?”

“I don't think these are your zombies.” Gamora plopped wearily down onto the one couch that hadn't been shoved in front of the door and folded her hands on her knees. “But its strange that all of those people down there are acting the way they are while we are unaffected. We should seek help from someone outside the city limits. Even off the planet, if we have to.”

“We would have no way of reaching our ship.” Mantis had joined Quill by the window, her hands to the glass and looking down upon the city. “They have us surrounded.”

“I got this.” Rocket climbed up Groot and instructed his friend to pull away the chandelier, the ceiling decoration lights flickering off and then crashing to the floor. Where it had once been was a opened, dark panel in the ceiling with electrical wires that Rocket jumped into from Groot's shoulder and started to crawl away. Before he disappeared completely, the raccoon briefly popped his head out and looked down at the others. “Just chill here while I'm gone and don't do anything stupid like order room service.” With that last remark, there were some faint scratching noises along the inside of the ceiling and he was gone.

Peter pinched his brow, controlling his breathing for a moment when he felt Drax put a hand to his shoulder.

“Why would the zombies eat your brains?”

“Man, I don't know...”

 


	3. Chapter 3

“This is ridiculous...” Rocket crawled through the ceiling while quietly cursing to himself about how typical this whole situation was. Of course their vacation had gone south, because things with their team usually did. They were allowed one carefree night and the rest had to go to hell within twenty-four hours. He mocked Starlord in a whiny, immature voice to pass the time. “Oh yeah, the _Sunset Festival_. Biggest party in the universe, guys. No really, it's better than going to the tropical planet of Bagari, or finding a casino resort to kick it in and hit some slots. Crawling through a dusty hotel ceiling is much more fun than all those things. Quill can go throw himself into an imploding supernova.”

The raccoon found the vent that aired out the elevator shaft and knocked the grate out. The building they were in was much too tall for climbing down to be practical, or he'd be in there all day. Instead, it made much more sense to just jump and freefall it. Fitting some thick gloves over his paws, Rocket leaped into the elevator shaft far enough so that he fell beside the cables. When he was drawing close to becoming a brown, fuzzy pancake, the raccoon extending a hand and grabbed for the thick, wire ropes. Tightening his grip, the quick, unforgiving snap of whiplash blurred his vision, but it didn't last long. Sliding down the rest of the way until he was at the bottom floor, Rocket crawled into another vent and headed for the lobby.

Watching the 'zombies' through the grates of the vents, Rocket studied their behavior and tried to make an estimate on how many there were. His best guess was about a shit ton. The lobby had high ceilings with similar silk banners to the ones that decorated the dining hall, Rocket using this to his advantage as he climbed out of the vent and jumped at one of the long drapes. He used the momentum he'd earned from the first jump to swing himself over to the next banner, and so forth until he was perched on the edge of the wall molding and was looking out a pained skylight of the city. There were more zombies in the lobby than there were on the street in front of the hotel, a large enough gap that he could have some wiggle room to cause a little chaos and keep his conscience clear. Unlatching the tilted skylight, Rocket hung out the window and got a strong breeze ruffling his ears and the fur of his cheeks. He pulled out one of his guns and very carefully aimed for the engine of an abandoned car below. Well, more of a bus really.

 

\- - -

 

Back at the Guardians' suite, Peter had finally stopped pacing to sit down on the king bed and was listening to some of his music to try and pass the time and calm his nerves. Other than that, the room was mostly silent. Mantis sat beside Gamora on the couch, her hands folded anxiously in her lap or else she would be fiddling with her own fingers. Looking up, finally, she smiled to the others in the room. “We could try playing Monopoly again while we wait?”

“I don't think anyone's in the mood for that right now, Mantis, but thanks for the suggestion.” Gamora tried not to put her friend's enthusiasm down too harshly and patted her arm.

“Where do you suppose Rocket has run off to?”

Peter opened his mouth to answer Drax, but just as a single word left his throat a loud bang from below the building rattled the windows and nearly deafened everyone from even this high up. Once the initial jump scare had subsided, Peter groaned long and loud as he put his face into his hands.

“I am Groot.”

“No, you think?”

 

\- - -

 

“Ooh yeah, that felt good.” Rocket giggled hysterically from the skylight at the flaming bus. He watched as not only the zombies from up the street moved towards the sound, but the ones in the Sal Lal hotel quickly began to spill outside to investigate. Rocket waited by patiently until everybody had left the lobby, and it didn't seem like any were smart enough to chase their group up the stairs after they'd made it into the elevator. Must have been an 'out of sight out of mind' level of intelligence. Once the lobby was back to being abandoned and quiet like he preferred, the Raccoon shimmied his way down a large curtain and hopped to solid ground.

Now that the stiffs were out of the hotel, his second order of business was to take a seat at one of the many computers behind the counter and immediately started searching through the emergency security protocol options for the building. “Let's see... Fire, robbery, terrorists, space bandits, Thanos attack, sandstorm, hurricane, earthquake... Floor 1 Lockdown? Sure, let's try that.”

The very second Rocket was able to override the password needed for the security command, the ground level of the hotel was suddenly plastered wall to wall with thick metal plating that rose from hidden panels in the floors and all the way up to the ceiling. Rocket slightly jumped at how sudden and quick the process had been, but when he regained his composure he grinned triumphantly. “There we go! Another problem out of the way.”

He just needed one last thing before he could start heading back up to the others. Taking a drive from his pocket, Rocket jacked it into the computer and patiently sat back with his arms folded over his chest as it did the rest. Once his device was done siphoning information from the computer, he carefully tucked it away again and cautiously crept along the walls to leave the lobby, just in case some of the zombies hadn't gotten his fiery message from earlier.

“Hello?”

“Yeeagh!” Rocket nearly jumped out of his own fur for the second time in the past five minutes, and he quickly whirled around with a gun drawn at the voice. There was no one among the lounge area or the dining hall that he could see, but the voice called out again.

“Is anyone out there?”

It was a small voice. That of a child, Rocket could only assume. This didn't make it any less creepy that he was hearing it when there was obviously no one in the room with him. In fact, it may have made it worse. Rocket's fur bristled on end, charging his gun up and showing teeth to compensate for being startled so easily. “Come out and show yourself!”

“I'm over here!”

The tiny voice replied immediately after, and this time Rocket was able to hear the exact direction it had come from, his dark ears twitching towards it. He turned and walked slowly over to where there was a cafe in the far corner of the lobby that mainly served coffee, tea, and a few breakfast items from behind the counter. Rocket could definitely smell that someone was hiding inside and heard a faint shuffling. Keeping his gun warmed up, he tried speaking with it again.

“Raise your arms above the counter first, and then slowly stand up.”

It took a moment, but soon two small, white hands appeared and following them above the counter was a frightened little girl. She was about eight-years-old and was of the Mephitisoid race with a pale, humanoid face, messy white hair, animal ears, and a striped skunk-like tail. She wore a sky blue, lace-trimmed nightgown that went to her knees, but when Rocket allowed her to step out of the cafe she was barefoot and wiggling her toes against the cold floor nervously. She didn't seem to have the same blank stare that the other civilians had when they'd attacked them, and she wasn't armed, so Rocket lowered his gun and made a face at her.

“The hell are your parents, kid?”

“I don't know.” She was teary-eyed, and that made Rocket uncomfortable. If she cried he wasn't going to know how to handle it. “Papa's here on business and I can't find him.”

“Okay, okay, stop everything right there.” Rocket put his gun back on his belt and held a paw up at her, backing up a bit. “I'm not the one to spill the water-works on. Just follow me and I'll take you to where my friends are. How long have you been back there?”

The girl wiped at her eyes and hiccuped, but answered him. “Not long. The people from outside came in and tried to grab me while I was looking for Papa so I hid.”

“That's our bad.” Rocket cringed, thinking about how they'd lead the entire hoard of dead-eyed people into the hotel like a bunch of dazed morons. Thumbing to the elevator, Rocket walked off. “We're going this way. Keep up.”

“Okay...”

The ride back up to the suite was an uncomfortable one, and Rocket chose not to say much of anything to the girl in the time they had before arriving at the top floor. He was relieved to finally reach the numbers 606 in the hallway and rapidly knocked on the door to be let in. “Guys! Open up!”

“I am Groot?” Was the muffled response from the other side.

“The password is; I'm going to light you on fire if I have to crawl back through the ceiling to get in there again.”

Heavy lifting and dragging was the next noise that responded to Rocket's hostility, and the door opened with the furniture temporarily moved out of the way. The moment he and the girl were through, Groot began moving everything back, but Rocket assured him otherwise. “No need, big guy. I've taken care of our roach problem. The floor level is clear and locked up like a safe.”

“You have something following you.” Drax observed as the girl slipped into the suite from behind Rocket, shying away from the large 'tree monster' that had let them in and overall surprised by the amount of frightening looking individuals in this one room.

“I found this kid hiding downstairs from those zombie people.” Rocket left the girl's side to plop down onto a beanbag chair and pulled out the drive he'd used earlier, connecting it to a disc-shaped hologram projector. “And I wasn't going to just leave her down there. Even I'm not that big of a dick.”

“Woah, man, language.” Peter got up and approached the girl, getting on a knee so he was more at her height. “Hey there, girly. What's your name?”

The Mephitisoid wrung the rim of her nightgown skirt and stared at her feet, but she answered all the same. “Taylee.”

“Well, Taylee, we're going to get you some slippers. There's broken porcelain all over the floor because I'm teammates with a bunch of animals.” By now Starlord had changed out of his pajamas and into his normal clothes, but the slippers he had were still too big for the child, so he looked around the suite closet until he found the kid sizes and handed her a pair. “Here, put these on. I'm cold just looking at your feet.”

“Thank you...”

“She is so cute!” Mantis hurried over to the little girl and knelt down to take Taylee's hands into her own, bobbing them up and down with a large smile on her face. “I do not get to speak with small children that often. I love your fluffy tail!”

For a split moment, Mantis stopped what she was doing and stared at the girl. She blinked great eyes at her, running a thumb over the child's knuckles in concerned silence. It wasn't until Taylee spoke that she came back into her own head. “I love my tail too. I also love the talking puppy's tail!” She pointed to Rocket, who looked up from what he was doing to throw both of them an ugly sneer with his black lip curled up and showing teeth.

Mantis gasped and shook her head, quickly correcting the girl. “Oh, no, no. He does not like being called that. Um, come sit by me, okay Taylee?”

“Okay!”

“Just keep her away from me, I'm trying to concentrate...” Rocket muttered after having his pride jabbed at and went right back to shoving his nose into the holographic images he'd been scrolling through.

“While he does his thing...” Peter started with his hands rested on his hips, turning to his crew with his long red Ravager's coat swaying at his ankles. “We have with us another non-zombie. So, let's pool our stories and try to piece together what is going on down there. Taylee? Care to share with us what's happened to you in the past couple hours?”

Taylee swung her feet around, thudding her heels against the white leather couch. While she thought long and hard, the girl bit her lip and looked down into her lap. Finally, she turned bright yellow eyes up at the Guardians. “Papa had to leave, so he left me in our room with the doors locked. He told me not to open it for any strangers, but I heard a weird noise down the hall so I opened the door to look outside. I thought it was Papa at first, but when I went to look it was a man being attacked. He was a Kali man and he was being dragged away by two Dororians. I screamed and tried to go back to my room, but another Dororian chased me down the hall. I was able to hide back in our hotel room and when everything was finally quiet I went downstairs to look for my Papa, but there were so many Dororians that I had to hide again. And then I was found by the pu-- him.”

She caught herself this time and pointed to Rocket again, who was completely engrossed in his work and thankfully didn't seem to hear her.

“That's all I know.”

“Only Dororians? Were there no others?” Gamora turned her gaze to Peter after picking apart the girl's story in her head.

“Yeah, now that you mention it...” Starlord rubbed at the scruff along his jaw and his brow furrowed. “Out of all those zombies downstairs, I didn't see a single one that wasn't a Dororian.”

Gamora continued his train of thought. “There were all kinds of people here last night, there's no way all of them could have just left since then.”

“We are not Dororian, and neither is this furry child.” Drax interjected. “And we have not been affected by whatever sickness inflicts them, nor were we downstairs when it happened. Our reckless intoxication has saved us from a fate most cruel.”

“I guess you could put it that way, sure.” Peter cringed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Good! That's more information than we had, which was none. Dororians are the only ones that are zombies right now and everyone else has been, um...” He cut himself off, deciding not to list off the unfortunate possibilities in front of the kid, since her father was obviously not a Dororian and was quite possibly taken. Drax opened his mouth, and knowing him Peter quickly put a hand up to his friend. “Don't.”

“Do not what? I was only going to ask if you mean to say--”

“ _DON'T._ ”

“Look, if you guys are finished, I have our escape route.” Rocket used his free paw to pick apart the images on the blue holographic screen, a 3d model of the Sal Lal appearing with various maps beside it. “There is an evacuation tunnel that runs through most of the major buildings in this city, including this one and it's accessible through the basement. There is an underground subway that takes you out of the city and its first station overshoots where we parked the Milano by a couple of miles, but it's the best bet we have. I'd personally favor having to walk a longer distance than getting my brains eaten.”

“No one is having their brains eaten, these are not zombies. Its ridiculous Peter even brought it up.” Gamora threw Starlord a look that read crystal clear as one that said 'look what you've done'.

In response, Peter put his hands up defensively. “What? It's what they look like! Next zombie film I get my hands on we are sitting down and you'll get why I'm so freaked out over this.”

“Either way, do we want to head down now or we going to hang here for a bit and finish off some of the pizza we left out?” Rocket collapsed the hologram back into its projector and rested a cheek in his paw. “I'm still hungover, I could use some pickle juice.”

“I saw pickles at the buffet.” Drax offered, and Groot nodded in agreement.

“I am Groot.”

“I'm sure they have something like ginger beer.”

“What? Guys? We're in the middle of a high tense situation right now and you want to--” Peter stopped up, looking between his teammates and realizing that just about everyone was still exhausted and suffering from nausea in one way or another. Even he wasn't doing all that well, and from what he could tell from his own stomach he was starving. He sighed. “Yeah, we'll take some food to go on our way to the basement, I guess... You realize it's going to all be cold, though.”

Drax insisted the point further, even with their leader clearly giving in already. “The child needs to be fed as well.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. She probably hasn't eaten yet either. Gamora, do you want anything?”

Gamora was looking at the floor with her knuckles to her mouth and biting one of them in thought. Finally she lifted her eyes and glanced between her friends. “Did you see if they had pancakes out?”

 


End file.
